Wow. Leclerc just won the sprint race by starting from P6, getting to the lead, then pitting from the lead, and overtaking 11 cars in 6 laps to regain the lead and win it.

Pitting in a sprint race and winning. Is this a first in GP2/F2?

No I believe Markelov did it last year hence he tried to do it again this year but seemed to get the strategy wrong by starting the race on the softer tyres, it was done because of the high deg on the tyres.

In regards to Leclerc despite winning the GP3 title last year he did struggle at times with managing the tyres and in yesterdays race he seemed to stuggle late in the race with the tyres worse than the other drivers around him but had a cushion to 4th place and just managed to hold on for 3rd place.

So in respect to Leclerc I think perhaps they felt there was no way he was going to run the race on one set of tyres and win the race or even perhaps finish on the podium?

Yes, both Prema drivers were not on top of the tyres yesterday which probably inspired them to try it this way. He had to make it happen though, passing 5 cars, then building a sizeable lead, then passing so many cars again. And the SC didn't help as it left him with even less time to do it all in.

Don't know if it's been mentioned but there's been an awful crash at Donington in F4. Video on You Tube. Billy Monger hit a stationery car and it took a couple of hours to get him out of the wreck. Driver he hit was also taken to hospital.

Be warned it's a bad one.

_________________"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967

Monger has been carefully extracted from the car after suffering leg injuries, and has since been airlifted to the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham for further examination.

Pasma was also carefully extracted from his car. He was fully conscious and immediately taken to the on-site medical centre. He has since been taken to the Queen’s Medical Centre for further assessment.

_________________"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967

Don't know if it's been mentioned but there's been an awful crash at Donington in F4. Video on You Tube. Billy Monger hit a stationery car and it took a couple of hours to get him out of the wreck. Driver he hit was also taken to hospital.

Be warned it's a bad one.

Perhaps it's stating the obvious, if the car was stationary why did he not make sure he was off the track?

In Indy Lights, Nico Jamin becomes a 1st time series winner at Barber Motorsports Park on Race 1. But the honors for Race 2 went to Colton Herta who won the 400th edition of the series. Kyle Kaiser kept his eyes on the points battle with 2 2nd-place finishes. Neil Alberico would finish 3rd in Race 1 while Race 1 winner Jamin secures the final podium spot in Race 2.

With Herta holding a 16 point lead, Kaiser, Jamin, Aaron Telitz, and Alberico are within 16 points from 2nd thru 5th.

Very impressed by Lando Norris winning his second race in F3. He looks like he has the goods to win this championship in his rookie year. And it looks like I have a favourite driver for the next few years after when Hamilton retires. The future doesn't look so bleak anymore lol.

Carlin drivers Emaan Ahmed, and Cameron Das share victories at Rockingham in British F3. But the 3rd race goes to Ben Hingeley who broke the Carlin stranglehold thus ending their 5-race winning streak. After earning his 4th win Saturday in Race 1, Ahmed's Sunday was a poor one for Race 2. He was caught in the incident involving Carlin's James Pull and Forec's Nicholas Kjaergaard courtesy of Double R's Jamie Chadwick thus dropping him in the back. Ahmed would recover for an 8th place finish. After finishing 2nd, Chadwick was hit with a 5-second penalty for the incident. But still, she earned the final podium spot. Christ Dittmann's Omar Ismail finished 2nd behind Das. In Race 3, Ben Hingeley needed 2 curves to pass Das, while James Pull took advantage to pass him as well, thus dropping Das to 3rd. Ahmed 3rd race was another downer afer attempting to pass Pull at the Deene Hairpin, but went wide and into the grass. He would finish 8th once again.

Ahmed still holds a 15-poin gap on Das (156-141) with Hingeley 7 points behind 2nd. Pull and Douglas Motorsport driver Callan O'Keefe hold their top positions as they take a 1 month break before going at again at Snetterton at the end May.

Very impressed by Lando Norris winning his second race in F3. He looks like he has the goods to win this championship in his rookie year. And it looks like I have a favourite driver for the next few years after when Hamilton retires. The future doesn't look so bleak anymore lol.

Norris has been quietly impressive for a few years. Started single seater racing in 2015 and immediately won a championship, won no less than 3 championships last year, and is certainly a contender for this year's Euro F3 season.

Talented kid for sure, and McLaren have spotted it - he's in the McLaren junior programme this year.

Very impressed by Lando Norris winning his second race in F3. He looks like he has the goods to win this championship in his rookie year. And it looks like I have a favourite driver for the next few years after when Hamilton retires. The future doesn't look so bleak anymore lol.

Norris has been quietly impressive for a few years. Started single seater racing in 2015 and immediately won a championship, won no less than 3 championships last year, and is certainly a contender for this year's Euro F3 season.

Talented kid for sure, and McLaren have spotted it - he's in the McLaren junior programme this year.

In GP3, French driver Dorian Boccalocci and US driver Ryan Tveter who made great impressions for team Trident that resulted them 2 more seats for the team. The former European F3 drivers will join Kevin Joerg and Giuliano Alesi.

Also conformed: Italian Formula 4 Champion Marcos Siebert. The Argentinian driver will join Campos for this first round.

A special article in regards about the Formula V8 3.5 formerly known as the WSR 3.5 are in a crisis due to a small grid. For the series to susvive, they may have to reach out to the other side of the Atlantic and into Asia.

Great weekend for Leclerc again, the Ferrari junior now having won points for pole, feature race win and a fourth place in the sprint race. Scorching start to the season for the reigning GP3 champ, opening up a lead worth more than a feature race win and this after just two race weekends.

No clean sweep for the Prema drivers though this year, as his teammate Fuoco is nowhere near. Maybe Gasly and Giovinazzi really did extraordinarily well last year?

_________________Go Vandoorne - Verstappen - Vettel!

Last edited by mds on Wed May 17, 2017 6:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

In GP3, French driver Dorian Boccalocci and US driver Ryan Tveter who made great impressions for team Trident that resulted them 2 more seats for the team. The former European F3 drivers will join Kevin Joerg and Giuliano Alesi.

Also conformed: Italian Formula 4 Champion Marcos Siebert. The Argentinian driver will join Campos for this first round.

Great weekend for Leclerc again, the Ferrari junior now having won points for pole, feature race win and a fourth place in the sprint race. Scorcing start to the season for the reigning GP3 champ, opening up a lead worth more than a feature race win and this after just two race weekends.

No clean sweep for the Prema drivers though this year, as his teammate Fuoco is nowhere near. Maybe Gasly and Giovinazzi really did extraordinarily well last year?

Fuoco is doing what he did when he was a rookie in GP3, crashing into everyone, I think he must pay to be in the Ferrari junior program unlike Leclerc who is on the program because of talent.

I'm curious to see a wet race because Leclerc was terrible last season in GP3 whenever it rained.

A special article in regards about the Formula V8 3.5 formerly known as the WSR 3.5 are in a crisis due to a small grid. For the series to susvive, they may have to reach out to the other side of the Atlantic and into Asia.

There'd be a nice 3-way fight for the championship in Euro F3 this year if it wasn't for Callum Illot's shockingly uneven form. Norris is probably the most impressive driver in the series since Ocon and Verstappen. Prema's top two getting beaten by Carlin and Motopark drivers with less experience so far.

Nico Jamin and Kyle Kaiser came up with split wins during the Indy Lights event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. Jamin roared down the competition from start to finish in Race 1 with Zachary Claman Demelo finishing 2nd with Kyle Kaiser filling the last podium spot. It was a total downer for Colton Herta who was the only driver that would have caught up to the French driver. Only to suffer a puncture around lap 14, and that is where he was losing balance taking him back of the field. Neil Alberico and Matheus Leist would round up the top 5 in Race 1.

In Race 2, it was Kaiser who jumped into the lead from start to finish. But the surprise was Santiago Urrutia who jumped from 4th to 2nd. Both Santi and Leist would battled it out causing Kaiser to increase his lead. Race 1 winner Jamin would settle for 4th, with Juan Piedrahita scoring 5th.

With the double-podium, Kaiser would end his day with the points lead over Jamin 139-126 with Herta close behind with 121 after another somber performance. The Lights teams will now concentrate to the IMS oval for the Freedom 100 this coming Friday.

A special article in regards about the Formula V8 3.5 formerly known as the WSR 3.5 are in a crisis due to a small grid. For the series to susvive, they may have to reach out to the other side of the Atlantic and into Asia.

Congratulations to Brazilian Matheus Leist who just scored his maiden win at the Freedom 100 at Indianapolis this past weekend. The 2016 British Formula 3 champion driving for Carlin went flag-to-flag leading all 40 laps to win his 1st oval event of his career. 1 surprise was Belardi Racing's Aaron Telitz who snatched away 2nd place from Andretti Autosport driver Dalton Kellett in a final gasp. Leist's teammate Neil Alberico and Belardi's Santiago Urrutia would seal the Top 5.

After finishing 9th, series points leader Kyle Kaiser driving for Juncos was the surprise leader at the end of the event after Andretti Autosport's Nico Jamin would fail to move up.

Colton Herta's day was a huge disappointment during the start. Herta's race came to an end after he got nudged by his teammate Kellett putting him to a spin that also collected their teammate Ryan Norman on the very 1st lap.

Kaiser takes his points lead to Road America at the end of June with Jamin by 14 points (151-137). Herta remains a slightly distant 3rd with 129 with Telitz and Alberico tied for 4th with 122 points each. Leist moves up to 6th 1 point behind Telitz and Alberico.

Putting it P1 by over half a second a couple of days after your father passed away is phenomenal stuff. He's done four races and already scored more consecutive pole positions than anyone except Vandoorne in the history of F(GP)2. Such a shame for him that the feature race in Monaco went the way it did, especially as it made the sprint race an almost impossible task. And as Giovinazzi showed last year, winning both races in Baku is very possible, something I think he totally can do this weekend.

Leclerc is ridiculously good. Shame for him to lose it due to a penalty but on pure performance he got pole and did the double, awesome.

The yellow flag rules do seem stupid to be fair. If a driver lifts by a second when going by the incident but sets a PB sector time due for example to having fresh tyres or having just cleared traffic, they will still get a penalty for not slowing enough. I think they need to review the way that works.

He's been consistently impressive from the get-go in 3 different series now, rookie champion in F3 (4th overall), Champion in GP3 in his first year and now leading F2 in his first year. Always a good sign to be able to adapt so quickly to new machinery. I just hope there's room for him on the grid next year, would be a shame to have to wait for a year like with Vandoorne.

Also, I wish someone would inform Valsecchi of the difference between contender and competitor. I guess it's not strictly wrong, but it still makes me cringe every time he calls someone like Canamasas a contender. He's a great commentator, though.

It might not take long to see another Brazilian on the grid. But it could become a possibility for 2016 British F3 Champion Matheus Leist who dominated the Iowa 100 on lap 23 never looking back. Santiago Urrutia also made a solid run finishing 2nd. Series points leader Kyle Kaiser never caught up with the leaders after finishing 3rd and getting his points lead cut from 26 to 13. Leist jumped from 4th to 2nd as they head down to Toronto.